ANASTASIUS GRÜN: “THE RING”

Excerpt, “The Poetry of Germany, Consisting from Upwards of Seventy of the Most Celebrated Poets.”  Translated into English Verse by Alfred Baskerville.  1853.

 

THE RING

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I sat upon a mountain,

Far from my native land,

Beneath me upland ridges,

Dales, corn and meadow land!

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The ring from off my finger

In dreamy thought I drew,

The pledge of love she gave me.

When last we bade adieu.

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Before mine eye I held it,

Like a telescope unfurled,

And through its little circle

Gazed down upon the world.

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Ye smiling verdant mountains,

Ye gold fields of corn,

No, ne’er did fair picture

A fairer frame adorn!

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Here cottages gleam brightly,

On verdant slope and hill,

There scythe and sickle gleaming

Beside the valley’s rill.

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And yonder plain, where proudly

The foaming torrent swells,

Beyond, blue granite mountains,

The frontier’s sentinels.

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And towns with gleaming steeples,

Woods clad in verdure’s prime,

And clouds that, like my longing,

Flee to a distant clime.

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As by a frame surrounded,

My golden circle spanned,

The earth and Heaven’s azure,

Man and his dwelling land.

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Fair picture, thus to gaze on,

By love’s gold circle spanned.

The earth and Heaven’s azure,

Man and his dwelling land.